And now, bombs are back in Belfast ...

Is there no limit to some people's stupidity? Is there still no cure in sight for the ever spreading cancers of ignorance, intolerance and bigotry which blight our precious planet?

Made all the more unbelievable in view of the recent result of radicalism in London, yesterday's bloody mayhem in Belfast almost leaves one lost for words.

Simply because a bunch of bowler hatted, bigoted old 'Orange' buffoons [and a band] 'paraded' them-silly-selves in the street -- another lot of loonies, reveling in their warped view of Republicanism, resorted to rioting.

The riots began with the throwing of bricks, then soon escalated into the insanity of hurling Molotov cocktails and, quickly culminated in a blitz of blast-bombing.

As only a second generation English, grandson of a pair of Irish immigrants, I feel more than qualified, entitled and indeed compelled, to comment on this stupefying shambles - a continuation of the serial-shambles which were supposedly sorted out, several years ago.

Perhaps at this point it would also be pertinent to point out that even now, I live just about a half hour's flight from Belfast. From here in North Western England, I can be in Northern Ireland in a lot less time than it takes me to travel via road or rail, to my own capital city.

Well, with hand on heart, This Old Brit can tell you here and now, that the so called 'solution' to 'the troubles,' so widely reported by the self serving media - was always a living lie. The wanton murders, coldly calculated assassinations, shootings, beatings, verbal and physical assaults, arson, intimidation, racketeering and true 'terror' of the shameful Ulster shenanigans never realy ended. Admittedly, the incidence and attending publicity may have lessened during the past few years - but 'the troubles' have continued regardless.

Around 100 policemen - Irish policemen - were injured while attempting to restore some semblance of sanity to yesterday's sickening spectacle. What a price to pay for their attempts to save both branches of these barmy bigots from each other's idiocy. Eh? In fact, so serious became the situation that for the first time in years, rubber bullets were brought back into play.

One of the most awful things that struck me while watching Tuesday's display of a downright daft but nonetheless dangerous, nightmare revisited, was the tender age of so many of the rampaging rioters. Teenagers and children for the most part, it appeared. Supported, encouraged and egged on of course, by the usual suspects belonging to the god-father brigade.

Are we really all set to suffer again, at the hands of yet another deluded generation of the gormless and the gullible? Such a thought is almost too awful to contemplate. Someone - anyone - please tell me it isn't so.

To say that I have nothing but contempt for such low life - belong they to either barbaric bunch - is an understatement. I despise and detest them. For over thirty years I've witnessed what such blatant and organized criminality masquerading as freedom fighting has inflicted on many thousands of innocents. And make no mistake, for years and years the troubles have been engineered by an Irish equivalent of the Mafia. Organized crime long ago replaced extremist politician-ring-leaders and cleric-enforcers, with their own 'made- men'.

Mayhem -- manufactured by madmen using mythology as a modus operandi.

King bloody Billy? Saint sodding Patrick? Ask yourself the question. When all is said and done - who the hell were they. What in [any] God's name have either of them got to do with anything? Surely, this is supposed to be the 21st century.

Jesus H. Christ. Give me strength.

The badly done by? The bad, doers to? The Struggle?

The down-trodden?

Dressed for the most part in expensive designer sportswear rather than rags, or even coarse uncomfortable uniforms? They didn't look nor sound downtrodden, yesterday. Nor did they act it. They deliberately provoked the police and literally 'demanded' a strong physical response. Why? Because they felt fully strong enough to prevail. Down-trodden? Huh!

The freedom fighters?

Phonies, I'd sooner say. They're as free as you and I. Blair & Bush rule their lives, exactly as they do yours and mine. In no worse nor better way than they do anyone else's -- believe me.

The bullied and brow beaten?

Bollocks! They are the bullies, themselves. The Continuity IRA and the other fantasy-republican crap hats, along with a plethora of para military pricks calling themselves loyalists - they are the bullying brow beaters, themselves. They're condemned by both the governments they respectively purport to support. The British and Irish premiers stand shoulder to shoulder against all these extremist factions, and their terrible tactics of terror.

The deprived?

Don't dare try to 'do my head in' with those same old lies. They've been mega-endowed with millions over the last several years. All manner of grants, investments, tax breaks, and many more monetary perks have made their way to Ireland during the last decade or so. From as far afield as Westminster, America, Japan, the European Union and other foreign parts

The persecuted?

Purleeeeze ...... pull the other one, it's got bells on. They've got exactly the same rights and representation as have any of the rest of us around these British Isles.

In the past, some of the above claims may have once held water - but certainly not now; nor have they for a considerably long time.

It's easy to forget, due to so many years of historical revisionist style reporting, that it is Irishmen themselves - NOT Englishmen cum Brits - who have mercilessly murdered so many Irish men, women and children; just as they did English men, women and children. Such are the undeniable and well documented facts and records which can be checked out for oneself.

My maternal grandparents would turn in their graves if they'd somehow been able to witness the awful antics of their fellow countrymen, yesterday. Whilst being as dirt poor, lacking in formal education, ill fed & ill clothed and as genuinely deprived as any working class people could possibly have been - be they Irish, English, Scottish or Welsh - they were NOT of the bigot-breed.

I remain to this very day, immensely proud to carry their blood and their genes. I feel honoured and privileged to have been born into such a decent, honest, respectable, tolerant, and plain hardworking family. For just as my grandparents rose [nay, dragged themselves] above the senselessness of self harming sectarianism - so did their daughter, my late wonderful mother. And so did her five children - of whom, of course, I am one.

So, This Old Brit hereby states very publicly, that he could not possibly be more positively proud of his Irish roots. Also, that he could not in any way, shape or form ever be construed as being remotely, anti-Irish.

At the same time though, he could not feel more shamed than he just has been, by the so-called Irish patriots he watched yesterday, as they performed their wicked worst.

But enough of This Old Brit, for today. Now, see what the BBC had to say.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4677805.stm